The Farm Surveys Research Department

The Farm Surveys Research Department has 25 staff members and is responsible for the National Farm Survey (NFS), which is the longest running research project in Teagasc, having first been undertaken in the mid-1960’s.  The Surveys Department is also responsible for delivering Ireland’s statutory data on farm output, costs and incomes on an annual basis to the EU-Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) in Brussels.  Additional surveys are also carried out on the NFS sample in Summer/Autumn of each year.  The main aim of the National Farm Survey is to determine the financial situation across the broad spectrum of Irish farms by system and size.  The Farm Surveys Database contains an archive of financial and technical data on Irish farming from 1984 to 2005, which is extensively used by researchers, advisers and policy makers.